Microsoft apologizes for Xbox Live issues with free Undertow download

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 18th 2008 at 12:30PM }

Nothing says "sorry" like a free game, and so, due to previous – and reportedly ongoing – Xbox Live service issues, Microsoft is going to offer Undertow free for download beginning next Wednesday, at 2 am PST, through Sunday. Two weeks ago, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten posted a letter to Live subscribers apologizing for poor performance during the holidays and promising a freebie was on the way. There are currently no plans to offer a substitute game for those who already own Undertow.

Gallery: Undertow (XBLA)

Tags: breakingnews, chair, undertow, xbla, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

GunForHire @ Jan 18th 2008 12:33PM

I guess RezHD was too much to hope for...

eljeeffa @ Jan 18th 2008 12:33PM

......ok i guess

BrenTiger @ Jan 18th 2008 12:33PM

+rep for microsoft

Paul @ Jan 18th 2008 12:34PM

i'm glad i didn't buy this game........sucks for those that did though.....

danny. @ Jan 18th 2008 1:06PM

yep. Sucks to be me :(

Grant @ Jan 18th 2008 3:33PM

agreed.
gave this game a test run and thought it was pretty cool... but def not $10 cool.
free is a great price for it though.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 12:35PM

ahhhh, nothing like a half hearted apology. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the freebie, but let me break it down for everyone here how this appears to be going down.

1. Undertow is offered up for free - great if you don't have the game, but what if you do?

2. If you do, it seems that multiple sources from MS are advising that you call customer service, and they'll "take care of you". We can take that to mean that there's an alternative - either you'll get to choose another game or (less likely) get 800 pts to spend as you see fit.

So, what conclusions can we draw here? Well, I'd say it's safe to say that this isn't an apology issued with the consumer in mind. I'd say this is an apology issued after figuring out what the most cost effective game they could give away for free was. Instead of offering everyone a choice, or MS points, that luxury will be offered only to those that own the game MS wants to publicize with this promotion. Had the freebie been a brand new game that no one owned, or had they given out MS points, or even given people the choice of what game they'd like, I'd be 100% with them on this one. As is, it's an apology - no doubt, but a half hearted one.

copa @ Jan 18th 2008 12:47PM

"Great if you don't have the game, but what if you do?"

Calm down, Mike. Word on the street is that neither of the dudes that bought this game were on Live that week.

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 1:00PM

"So, what conclusions can we draw here? Well, I'd say it's safe to say that this isn't an apology issued with the consumer in mind..."

I don't agree at all. What would have liked, the pennies you spent for the few hours / days of outages instead? I think a $10 gift is more than enough of an apology for something that largely hasn't affected the majority of us much (except that maybe a few people played less video games, and how bad is that?).

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 1:08PM

Marty,

I halfway agree with you - A ten dollar gift is a good apology. That's not exactly what this is. On the surface, MS is giving away a ten dollar game. Under the hood, however, phone calls were made, and deals were struck ensuring that MS would in all likelihood not be paying ten dollars for each copy of Undertow given out for free. So, in essence, the only ones getting a true "ten dollar gift" are those who already have Undertow, and call the support line to be "taken care of" whatever that means.

Had MS said "Hey guys, here's 800 pts - have fun on us" or "hey guys, we effed up - pick an 800 pt game, and it's all yours, on us" I would 100% agree that it is more than enough of an apology. This move is a half hearted one - I've thought so since the day they announced that they'd be picking the apology game, not us. Like I said before, I DO appreciate the freebie - free is nice. I just don't think that this is a big fantastic apology - it's a half hearted, cost effective, PR move - not a sincere apology.

dan stabbingworth @ Jan 18th 2008 1:15PM

Ha! Good luck with their customer service. I see 2 outcomes:

1. They have to transfer you multiple times with lots of waiting until they get you to the one person who can issue points

or

2. They have no idea what you're talking about, tell you you're wrong/misinformed, then hang up on you

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 1:16PM

I'm sorry Mike, but to us, it doesn't matter if Undertow's developer PAID Microsoft to do this. To us, it's still a free $10 game, and that's more than this trouble has been worth. Just because you don't like / want Undertow doesn't make it worth any less. A $10 gift is a $10 gift.

But why do I get the feeling that if it were just the 800 points, you'd be complaining that we weren't just given $10?

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 1:18PM

@Dan - MS's support line is actually pretty helpful... you can call in the middle of the day and get through pretty quickly, and you won't be talking to some out-sourced foreign support house (or at least, I never have).

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 1:21PM

Marty,

I'm not one to complain just to complain - 800 pts would be a great gift - I'd be more than happy with that. I haven't been calling for the death of MS, I haven't been calling for free XBL - but I have been effected, and displeased by the outages. I pay for a premium service, and while I don't use it every day, I expect it to be there when I want to use it. And, aside from maintenance, is usually is - except for the past month and a half. All I'm saying is if they want to apologize, they should - take ten dollars out of their pocket and put it into mine in the form of 800 ms points or an XBLA game of my choosing. This is a PR stunt. Not an apology.

Co @ Jan 18th 2008 1:25PM

To clarify, Marty is employed at Microsoft.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 1:29PM

Marty,

I'm beginning to get the feeling that you work for MS. Their customer support has been terrible every time I had to call them for anything. When my 360 RROD'd they tried to get me to:

A. Pay to ship it to them (despite the fact that this is supposed to be included - and they did include it after arguing)

B. Rather than arranging a UPS pickup, they tried to get me to just take it to a UPS facility - I've heard that they will arrange pick up, but they didn't do it for me - fortunately, a friend of mine works in an office where ups does pick ups every day.

C. When I called to get credited for marketplace content that no longer worked under my girlfriends acct, I had one hell of a time getting the foreign CSR to understand that UNO was one of the games I had purchased. She kept responding "Funo?" me:"No, Uno." her: "Juno?" me: "No, UNO." her (again)"Funo?" me: "please transfer me to a supervisor." The credit took a week longer than it was supposed to, and the repair took two weeks longer than it was supposed to.

Interesting side note: the supervisor was able to look up what I had purchased w/o me having to list it off. The CSR I was speaking either didn't know better or didn't care.

BigD145 @ Jan 18th 2008 1:39PM

"You don't get rich by giving away money."

This is not a $10 game. $10 is the retail value of the download. Microsoft is not making up for the loss of real dollars that its users have suffered from buying time and not getting it. This move costs Microsoft mere pennies on the dollar.

dan stabbingworth @ Jan 18th 2008 1:49PM

Sorry, but their customer service is terrible. When I tried to get credit for xbla games after my box broke, they hung up on me, told me games weren't tied to the 360s serial number, and then told me they had credited me when they hadn't.

Oh, and that's when they understand English.

Adam @ Jan 18th 2008 2:31PM

Some people will never be happy...

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 2:36PM

Adam,

I love fanboy mentality - I see it anytime MS, Sony, or Ninty messes up - anyone who doesn't just bend over and take it in the ass is a "whiner" or "they should go buy [insert alternate console here] if they don't like it".

I said it multiple times - I DO appreciate the freebie - however, it's not a proper apology to the consumers. It's a good business move for MS.

CB @ Jan 18th 2008 2:40PM

Why are you guys arguing over this? It's a free game and that's it. We all have wishes and nothing is gonna change but at least MS gave us something.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 2:46PM

CB,

The reason I'm speaking up on this is simple. MS effed up. Now they're trying to pass off a cost effective PR move as an "apology".

We get the game that they choose - they're not paying full price for it. We don't get a choice, we don't get the month of busted live back, we don't get MS points. We get a game of their choosing. And if we don't download it within the five day window, we get nothing.

Like I said before, if they want to apologize, they need to do it right. Take ten bucks out of their pocket, and put it in mine. 800 pts, a free game of my choosing, or a free month of live would all have been great apologies - this is a PR stunt, not a proper apology.

CB @ Jan 18th 2008 2:57PM

Having any of those would've been nice (free game of choice for me) but let it go already. I don't care how bad of a "PR" move it is, it's an apology no matter how bad it is.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 3:03PM

CB,

If you're happy with it that's totally your choice - I'm not trying to tell anyone how to feel. And, as I've said, I DO appreciate the freebie - it's just not the big apology they've been babbling on about. It's all smoke and mirrors IMO.

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 3:17PM

I don't work for MS... I'm actually a graphic designer for a national beverage company. :D

But I am also a rational human being, and recognizing that we don't really deserve anything for the outages that occurred, I am happy with whatever they'll give. I wasn't even affected by the outage, save for icons being slow to load in the Marketplace.

You guys are skeptical of things to a fault.

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 3:22PM

About the CSR stuff Mike, when my 360 RRoD'd a few months ago, it just took one phone call, the CSR was friendly, and they got me a box in no time after I answered a few simple questions about what happened. After a few weeks of waiting, I called them again to see where the box was, and again, I got a friendly CSR who helped me out and told me where my box was, and why the process can take a while. I received my fixed 360 a couple of weeks later (along with a free month of Live), and it's all been good since then.

If you think MS's CSR's are bad, try calling up your cell phone provider's service. 20 minute waits, hard-to-understand CSR's, and disconnects abound.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 3:25PM

Marty,

Seems you were lucky as far as outages were concerned. I personally wasn't even able to sign in for a large portion of December. When I was signed in, matchmaking was slow to the point of unplayable. Now, as far as what's *deserved* - I paid for a full year of live, and I deserve to get it. Now, I understand that shit happens, and that's what's going on here, so I'm not calling for anyone at MS's head on a platter or anything, but I didn't get what I paid for. MS made the decision to make an "apology" to gamers. No, they didn't LEGALLY have to, but from a PR standpoint they absolutely had to. So they went with a cost effective apology, and that doesn't sit well with me.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 3:32PM

Marty,

LOL - it seems we've had exact opposite CSR experiences - my microsoft experience was terrible, and my cell phone experience was great - My cell provider (AT&T) was great when I called about a billing issue - she spoke english, answered after only about thirty seconds on hold, and fixed the issue as soon as I pointed it out - she deducted it w/o me even asking. I couldn't have asked for more. It's funny how that stuff can vary from one person to the next.

Mr.ESC @ Jan 18th 2008 3:43PM

Response to A: Sorry pal but here is where you fail, my Xb360 have been repaired 2 times and I have never ever paid a penny. 1 you are lying or 2 you were fooled.

Response to B: Seriously unless you live on the top of a Volcano or something Ups will always send you the box. This is sounds like BS.

Response to C: a bit racist but this argument is actually believable, my call was transfer to Argentina once and well they took 2 weeks before saying anything about the status of the
“Box” or the order itself which was kind of weird because the first time my Xb360 was repaired they took less than 10 days in total.

The 3rd week I made another call (This time it was transfer to another Country I think Venezuela or Chile) they said to me that their staff in Argentina didn’t do **** but Ms Staff in somewhere in South America was really nice and they repaired my Xb360 really fast. They apologize for the incompetence of their staff in Argentina, so I blame MS staff in Argentina but not MS themselves.

Now why are you literally bitchin about something free when they could just do nothing? ,like Nintendo for the delay of Smash or Sony for well pretty much everything like the poor quality of the PSP lite.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 3:58PM

Mr.ESC

Read carefully - I did eventually get everything I was supposed to from Xbox Customer care - just had to fight every step of the way for it - and, IMO, that's terrible customer service.

As far as why I've got a problem with the "apology", I'm a paying gold member. I haven't gotten what I've paid for the past month and a half or so. The "apology" for the lack of service is a half hearted one. That bothers me. Does it suck that SSBB is late? yea - it does. However, I didn't pay money to have SSBB by a particular date. Therefor, there's no reason for Ninty to compensate me in ANY WAY. I paid fifty bucks to have XBL gold for a year, and I didn't get what I paid for. Now, in the terms of use for XBL it says something to the effect of "if you have problems go fuck yourself", so no, I'm not legally entitled to anything - however, had they delivered no compensation, I'd probably stick to online gaming on the PC, and warn friends away from XBL. As is, yea, I appreciate the freebie, and it goes part of the way to making me feel better about the XBL outages - However, it doesn't feel like a sincere apology either. In short, I'm not going to warn people away from live, but I'm also not endorsing it if anyone asks me about it. It's cool that they did SOMETHING - but it was still a half hearted PR stunt, not a proper apology. Again, all just my opinion.

Think of it this way - you pay $50 for God of War 2 for the PS2. You play it through to find out that the last two levels are missing from your disc. You contact Sony, and as compensation for your problem, they offer you a sandwich. While the sandwich is good and all, it doesn't really make up for the fact that you didn't get to see the end of the game, now does it?

Mr.ESC @ Jan 18th 2008 4:11PM

Depends was the sandwich good, you know with prosciutto di parma ,goat cheese and gruyere cheese in a fresh baked garlic bread. Then hells yeah, I rather have that sandwich that freaking God of war 2.

Well then complain about it, Hey Ms I want a free xlive month as well because you freaking rip me off.

For the rest of us,selfish human beings that weren’t using Xlive (Stupid Assassins’creed flags)I really don’t care except that I get a sweet game for free.

For the record: You didn’t make that clear.

Mike @ Jan 18th 2008 4:18PM

DAMN YOU MR ESC!!!

Now, rather than getting some work done, or playing some games, I just can't stop thinking about sandwiches - I may take the rest of the day off and go to the bistro down the street - they have a wrap very similar to the sandwich you described.

paulb @ Jan 18th 2008 5:51PM

im tired of all the xbot zombies with the 'tos this' or 'they dont have to do anything that.'
'o please mr. microsoft, dont whip me, i love you sooo.'

here is a history lesson for all the xbots that think that complaining about a contract or law actually helped:
there was a time when slavery was LEGAL. the slaves and others COMPLAINED and no more slavery.

there was a time when workers in america were severely mistreated and it was LEGAL. the workers stood together and fought back and won fair rights.

there was a time when segregation was LEGAL. but someone COMPLAINED and segregation is illegal.

just because they put it in their 'contract' doesnt mean we cant stand up to them for compensation.
you xbots must sure like it up the ass dont you?
instead of defending the corporation, you should try sticking together with your fellow consumers.

im sure i could come up with a contract that tells someone to slap all xbots in the face. some jackass will sign it and have to do it. dont worry, he is legally bound to do it.

Jason @ Jan 18th 2008 11:52PM

hmmm...

so you're comparing not being able to play video games online for a few days to slavery, segregation, and worker abuse?...

....

wow....just....wow....

paul246 @ Jan 19th 2008 12:30AM

well since all the xbots keep talking about how Legal proof the TOS is, i just wanted to remind them that it is not.
i was also trying to point out that without standing up for yourself and not getting buttraped just cause they said so is the only way to change things for the better.
if you didnt get that from reading my reply, then here is something you might understand:
since its obvious you are underage, you are not legally bound to any contract that you sign. just like many xbox users, you too can sue MS since they are obligated to prove service for payment even though you arent bound by the TOS. Understand Jason?

Platinum_Skeet @ Jan 19th 2008 1:44PM

Paul246 I hope you're a PC gamer or all your credibility is gone out the window...

T3H WICKERMAN (TMNT DF) (BWF) @ Jan 20th 2008 3:05AM

@Marty ur teh rtard or you are 1 in a million if you think microsofts customer support is good or helpful. Those mean spirited a holes (most of whom cant speak english very well or even know what an achievement is)have hung up on me multiple times and one even called me stupid because I didnt know my credit card number, f those scum. The least these a holes can do is not out source their labor for a damn call center that has no accountability and isnt able to speak the same language as the region they are serving. Their customer service is anything but. Im sorry (happy) for you if you havent had to deal with these fuxxorz over my stolen arcade games and the DRM problem, them charging my card when I told them to stop,my rrod 360 and numerous other problems I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy.

Martin @ Jan 18th 2008 12:35PM

Is this for real? Did they just pick a game's name out of a fucking hat? If it's a code for the game, I'll donate it to someone else; the demo sucked.

Marty @ Jan 18th 2008 1:01PM

It's like an underwater Soldat... how could that suck?

michaud.jon @ Jan 18th 2008 12:35PM

Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!

I was thinking of buying this game!

WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

p.s I'm one of those new 360 holiday owners!

flameofdoom666 @ Jan 18th 2008 2:22PM

Me tooo! Soooo excited!

Luke @ Jan 18th 2008 2:30PM

So it was you that did this!!!

qbix @ Jan 18th 2008 12:36PM

Oh great. I bought this on day one, and now I officially wasted 800 points. It's like that Contra game I was given after the Old Spice Challenge. Thank you Microsoft, but perhaps your efforts should be focused on fixing the annoying DRM issue with marketplace downloads.

dan stabbingworth @ Jan 18th 2008 1:16PM

Yes, please keep mentioning the stupid DRM! Will MS please freaking respond to this issue!

Maybe Joystiq could run an article about it.

umm....hello??? @ Jan 18th 2008 1:49PM

agreed. I think I've mentioned this a few times myself the last 2 weeks. good luck playing Undertow unless their xbl service is up and running. I could understand if they wanted to prevent you from copying the game, but why not just make it so you can only MOVE a game file (say back and forth between your HD and MemoryCard if you want to bring it over to your friend's house to play an XBLA game).

and whatever happened to their XBLA retail discs...they've only made that one that has Geometry Wars on it. what about all the (few) people that don't have high-speed internet access (or don't like the DRM for digital downloads)????

Whingnut @ Jan 18th 2008 3:46PM

Joystiq or Xbox360 fanboy will never run an article addressing the DRM issue as they are MS shills. I think MS only permits them to address things only after MS has already publicly addressed it. Ever wonder how Engadget and X3FB always seem to have access to Major Nelson and Bill Gates? I don't think they'd want to lose that access by publicly addressing something that MS isn't ready to deal with yet.